Vaucluse Has Become to Him a Scene of Pain
To every sound, save sighs, this air is mute,When from rude rocks, I view the smiling landWhere she was born, who held my life in handFrom its first bud till blossoms turn'd to fruit:To heaven she's gone, and I'm left destituteTo mourn her loss, and cast around in painThese wearied eyes, which, seeking her in vainWhere'er they turn, o'erflow with grief acute;There's not a root or stone amongst these hills,Nor branch nor verdant leaf 'midst these soft glades,Nor in the valley flowery herbage grows,Nor liquid drop the sparkling fount distils,Nor savage beast that shelters in these shades,But knows how sharp my grief--how deep my woes.
Words in this poem
- amongst prep.
- Mixed or mingled; surrounded by. [OE. amongist, amonges, amonge, among, AS. onmang, ongemang, gemang, in a crowd or mixture. For the ending -st see Amidst. See Mingle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vaucluse Has Become to Him a Scene of Pain is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Petrarch, Vaucluse Has Become to Him a Scene of Pain, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/vaucluse-has-become-to-him-a-scene-of-pain.html, id L14870.
Form and metre
Vaucluse Has Become to Him a Scene of Pain is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDCDCD muteA · landB · handB · fruitA · destituteA · painB · vainB · acuteA · hillsC · gladesD · growsC · distilsD · shadesC · woesD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To every sound, save sighs, this air is mute, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When from rude rocks, I view the smiling land | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where she was born, who held my life in hand | 10 | ·········· |
| From its first bud till blossoms turn'd to fruit: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To heaven she's gone, and I'm left destitute | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| To mourn her loss, and cast around in pain | 10 | ·········· |
| These wearied eyes, which, seeking her in vain | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Where'er they turn, o'erflow with grief acute; | 11 | ˘˘/······˘/ |
| There's not a root or stone amongst these hills, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor branch nor verdant leaf 'midst these soft glades, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor in the valley flowery herbage grows, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Nor liquid drop the sparkling fount distils, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Nor savage beast that shelters in these shades, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But knows how sharp my grief--how deep my woes. | 10 | ·········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.